According to Independent Bangladesh, everybody is saying that Bangladesh has picked a TOO YOUNG team, whereas most of the other teams are taking experienced players.

I think In the 20 member team, there are as many as 7 (SEVEN) players who are experienced. The only experienced player missing in this team is Naimur Rahman - former captain and a spinner-cum-allrounder. The rest of the experienced players who are still capable of playing at the international level are not as wanting i.e., they are not match winners (Aminul Islam and Enamul Haque).

The seven players who are experienced in the 20 member team are:

1) Al Shahriar - though his age is only 25 on record (Cricinfo and other places), he is a lot more older and has been playing cricket for a long time. Why am I saying that he is a lot more older? Well, in the U-19/20 world cup held in South Africa a few years back, he along with Mehrab Hossain Opee was included in the final tournament. At that time, there were a lot of controversies regarding Rokon's age.

2) Captain Khaled Mashud - although he is only 26 - 28 years old now, he too have been playing cricket at the international level since 1995.

3) Javed Omar Belim - Another young, but very experienced player - his debut tournament was also back in 95.

4) Monjurul Islam - yes he is only 23/24 on record, but he does not have the firepower left in him to last for the next world cup in 2007. And his debut for Bangladesh national team was back in 1997 during Bangladesh's first ever NZ tour.

5) Vice captain Habibul Bashar - well he is 30 years old and so there is no need to talk about his experience. Before 2000, he was instantly coming in and going out of the team regularly. His debut was also in 1995.

6) Sanwar Hossain - He didn't get much chance at the international level because Aminul and Akram used to occupy the number 4 and 5 position for a long time, but his debut was also way back in 1998 in a one day international.

7) Khaled Mahmud Sujon - His debut was also in 1998, but he was already a lot more experienced player in domestic cricket by the time he started to play for the national team.

Wait, did I say 7? I think it will be 8 (EIGHT).

8) Mohammad Rafique - He is over 30 years old, and may be the most experienced player in the side in terms of age, and his debut was also way back in 1995.

And we all know what happens to a team where too many old players occupy the team for a long time.

Example: Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda De Silva's Sri Lanka of 1996 and 1999 world cup.

In the 1999 world cup, there was only a handful number of changes in the world cup side.

fwullah

December 30, 2002, 04:37 AM

According to my research, the most experienced players of the team are:

1) Pilot
2) Javed
3) Sumon
4) Rafique
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5) Sanwar
6) Sujon
7) Rokon (Rokon was a recognized young player even before the name of Sujon could be heard of)
8) Monju

Experienced players:

1) Hannan Sarkar
2) Ehsanul Haque

Both of them has debut for national team in 2002 alright (i.e., after debut of even Ashraful) but they have been opening for Bangladesh A team for such a long time that even I forgot exactly when did they first started to open for Bangladesh 'A' team.

Least Experienced players:

1) Ashraful
2) Mashrafe
3) Tushar Imran
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4) Kapali
5) Tapash
6) Talha (although Talha was in the 1st test of SL tour - while Kapali and Tapash was not, but Kapali and Tapash are more experienced in terms of domestic level of cricket of Bangladesh)

So, we've got 8 most experienced players and 6 least experienced players. So, is our team combination based on TOO YOUNG players?

I have come up with this conclusion based upon the following stats:

Player Name- No. of years playing cricket at intern'l level - Born - Age - ODI - tests - debut for BD